Under half of MPS advertise in-person public surgeries

THE majority of MPS are not advertising in-person public surgeries, a survey by The Daily Telegraph has found.

Of the 630 sitting MPS in England, Scotland and Wales, just 268 provided publicly available information on how to attend an in-person surgery. A further 99 were only holding surgeries via video or phone call, mostly owing to concerns over Covid.

The remainder had no information on their websites or social media about how to attend a constituency surgery, how to book an appointment, or when surgeries took place.

Among the reasons for not advertising given by MPS’ offices contacted by The Daily Telegraph were security concerns and a desire to fix constituents’ issues before they needed escalating.

A majority of MPS now require appointments to attend constituency surgeries. Those contacted offered similar reasons to MPS who do not advertise their events.

Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker of the House of Commons, expressed sympathy with MPS and said safety must be a priority. He said: “MPS must feel comfortable in the way they carry out the meeting of constituents. And they must always put the safety of themselves, their staff and their constituents first in deciding which is the best way to go forward.”

Fears over the safety of MPS were heightened last month after Sir David Amess, the Conservative MP for Southend West, was stabbed to death at a constituency surgery. It came five years after Jo Cox, the Labour MP for Batley

‘MPS must feel comfortable in the way they carry out the meeting of constituents. They must put their safety first’

and Spen, was murdered by a far-right extremist on her way to a surgery.

MPS were given updated safety guidance from police in the immediate aftermath of the attack on Sir David. Since 2015, Operation Bridger has given elected officials advice from local forces on protecting themselves.

Some have had extra measures implemented in their constituency offices, such as panic buttons, bomb-proof letterboxes and toughened glass.

Several constituency offices told The Telegraph that they had extra screening or police or security guards present during their surgeries.